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Sunday, February 12, 2012

News Article: Jacky Cheung to earn $300 million HKD for his ½ Century World Tour Concert

I haven't posted much about Jacky on my blog lately (mostly due to not having time to translate all the articles and other stuff that I've read / watched about him recently), so I didn't want to pass up the chance to post the below article.

To be honest, the 'numbers' in the article mean nothing to me really, since I'll continue to be a devoted Jacky fan no matter how much (or how little) money he makes (so to me, the 'salary' part is a moot point)!

A few other comments regarding the article:

.-- If it's true that the finale show on May 23rd will be the 144th show of Jacky's concert tour, then that means from now until the concert ends, there are approximately 32 shows left. So far, I would estimate that all of the upcoming 'return' shows that have been announced (from mid-February until May) only total about 15 or so (maybe even less, since I'm not necessarily counting every single Mainland China show)....so with half the shows still not announced yet, I guess this means that there is still a chance Jacky will return to the U.S. for another show (or two)? Definitely keeping my fingers crossed!!

.-- I love the song 《一滴淚》! I was so happy that Jacky actually included this song as part of the regular rundown this time around (he sang it during the Las Vegas show as well, since it's actually part of the 'mini-movie' portion) because he rarely ever sings this song live in his other concerts....he usually sings the Cantonese version of the song instead -- if he even sings it that is (nothing wrong with the Cantonese version, it's just that I've always liked the Mandarin version of the song better, probably because I heard the Mando version before the Canto one).

.-- With regard to the 'unpleasant travel experience' mentioned in the article, those who are interested can read a more detailed version of it here(note that it's a direct link to the original news article from Sina, so the article is in Chinese). The interesting thing to note about the incident -- the airline involved was Cathay Pacific (yup, the same airline that Jacky used to work for decades ago)....ah, the irony!

*****

Jacky Cheung to earn $300 million HKD for his ½ Century World Tour Concert

Jacky Cheung’s《1/2 Century Concert》returned to Taiwan this week [February 10th and 11th] with 2 consecutive shows at the Kaoshiung Arena. Last night’s show marked the 112th show of a concert tour that – once all is said and done – will have lasted a year and a half and shown to an audience count exceeding 2 million. It is anticipated that after the finale show (the 144th show of the concert tour) closes at the Asia Expo Center in May, total ticket sales will have exceeded $800 million HKD – with Jacky’s ‘salary’ per show set at approximately $2.3 million HKD, it is estimated that his personal ‘income’ from the entire concert will exceed $300 million HKD.

Since it has been 10 years since Jacky last held a concert in Kaoshiung, the more than 20,000 seats for both shows reached full capacity early on during the ticket sales process. For the opening night performance [on February 10th], Jacky was in his usual good spirits and maintained his trademark high quality performance, kicking off the night with a 5 minute tap-dance routine. Originally, the concert organizers had suggested that Jacky include a special performance of a song in Taiwanese for the audiences, however due to his busy concert tour schedule, he did not get a chance to rehearse the song – therefore, in keeping with his philosophy of not performing at all if he is not able to do it well, Kaoshiung audiences did not get the chance to hear Jacky sing in their native language. However, the audiences did get to hear Jacky sing many of his classic Mandarin hits, which was already enough to put the entire arena in an elevated mood!

On the first night, during his performance of classic hit 《一滴淚》[‘A Teardrop’], Jacky had a ‘near miss’ while trying to reach one of the high notes of the song, though it was barely noticeable to most audiences -- ironically though, during his Taipei concert show last year, Jacky also ‘lost’ to the same song [he encountered a similar problem with the same song last time].

Earlier, Jacky had traveled to London with his wife May Lo and their 2 daughters for vacation during the Lunar New year holiday. However, during their return trip back to Hong Kong, Jacky and his family encountered a slightly unpleasant experience – not only was their flight delayed by 11 hours, they were also mistakenly placed in Economy class when they had actually paid for Business class [a mixup occurred during the switching of flights]. Towards this, Jacky stated that the experience was definitely an unpleasant one, but he would treat it as a learning opportunity for his family to experience together.

Ever the benevolent father, Jacky revealed that his eldest daughter is 11 years old and already doesn’t like ‘playing’ with him anymore – sometimes, when he tries to kiss his daughter, she makes faces at him and runs away. Jacky also had some sound advice for his good friend Andy Lau, who will finally become a father this year: try your best to enjoy every day of being a father because once you miss the opportunity to see your child grow up, you won’t get the same opportunity again.

2 comments:

hey there! i'm ang2383 from asianfanatics. i just bought tickets to his farewell show in HK. i decided to make the plunge and fly to HK. i'm overdue for a visit anyway. i bought the most expensive tickets and they're not even floor seats! those tickets weren't available. ugh!

Wow, you got tickets to the finale show? So lucky!! I would love to go watch Jacky in concert in HK, but unfortunately it's not plausible for me to do so...ah well, guess I have to wait for him to come back to the U.S.!

Omg, I totally understand what you mean regarding trying to get the best seats and most expensive tickets available. I tried to do the same thing with the Las Vegas concert, but the most I was able to get were the second tier tickets (which still cost me more than $300 USD a piece!). Unfortunately, alot of the most expensive tickets go to the concert sponsors, most of whom aren't even Jacky fans and usually get the tickets for free! Ugh!!!! So unfair!!!